sustainable living

12/02/2012

Al Gore is really doing it, bringing climate awareness to the doorsteps of opinion makers and forcing them to consider all of its implications. Of course, no good deed ever goes unpunished in this country.

Aside from all the sniping about his annual home power bill (which turns out to be so high partly because he spends an extra five grand or so to buy windpower and might also have something to do with a vice president's security needs), lots of the usual "free market uber alles" types are accusing him and all green-minded folks of forcing them to wear the dreaded "hair shirt" of mandatory reductions in their energy use.

Incredibly, those who aren't complaining about the sacrifices are indignant about Gore making it all seem too easy. In Robert J. Samuelson's New York Times editorial last week titled "Hollywood's Climate Follies," he accuses Gore of painting the issue as "saints vs. sinners" and failing to acknowledge that: "The lifestyles that produce greenhouse gases are deeply ingrained in modern economies and societies.... Those who believe that addressing global warming is a moral imperative face an equivalent moral imperative to be candid about the costs, difficulties and uncertainties."

It's hard to tell exactly what triggered Samuelson's outrage, but it seems to be a line from Gore's Oscar acceptance speech where he said: "We have everything we need to get started, with the possible exception of the will to act. That's a renewable resource. Let's renew it.

But what will it take to renew that resource? Everywhere the conventional wisdom is that Americans will never give up their big cars, big houses, air conditioning set at 65 degrees on hot summer afternoons and incandescent light bulbs blazing throughout the house. This is the American way of life, and the idea that it cannot last seems to drive some people into hysterical fits. Don't just do something, panic! Al Gore and the greenies want to send us back to the 1970s!

10/29/2007

Inventor Jay Harman's water tank mixer, based on the natural spirals found in seashells and flower blossoms.(Photo: Pax Scientific)

The annual Bioneers conference has a reputation for creative and deep thinking about sustainability and the environment, but during all my years as an environmental activist, I never managed to attend. On October 19-21, I finally made it to the conference in San Rafael, California. It was an opportunity to feel the pulse of the environmental movement today and reflect on how it has grown and changed since Bioneers began in 1990, the same year that I became a full-time environmental activist.

In 1990, I was working as a signature-gathering coordinator for a California forestry initiative that would have ended clear-cutting in California forests. I organized volunteers to hit the streets with petitions throughout the East Bay, and not just the street corners in Berkeley where signatures were as easy to gather as apples on the ground. Looking toward the election in the fall, I recruited the two housewives in working-class Freemont who would staff a table at the mall on Saturday, and the lone environmentalist in conservative Concord. But one day, at my table in Oakland, I was approached by an elderly black man with anger in his eyes.

"What are you doing, worrying about trees," he said, "when black people are still dying on the streets." The civil rights movement wasn't finished, he told me, and he couldn't understand why liberal whites had given up and turned their attention to frivolous things like trees. I had no idea how to respond, but later, a middle-aged black woman came by my table and told me how important it was to save forests. She shared her memories of her Louisiana home and the forests she had known there. A few weeks later, on Earth Day, we were invited to bring our petition to a church in the refinery town of Richmond, where the Rev. Jesse Jackson would speak.

Jackson's beautiful sermon wove together concern for the Earth, civil rights and justice. Afterwards, young black children came up to my table, where I had a picture of the redwoods, and asked me where that was. "Is that in Africa? Are there monkeys? Can I go there?" These children had never seen a redwood, even though the nearest grove stood barely a dozen miles away, just over the bridge, in Marin County. I wanted to do something about that, but I never did.

At the Bioneers conference, I heard from courageous people who have moved mountains to make the connection between environmentalism and civil rights. Van Jones, of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, is spearheading what he calls "social uplift" environmentalism. His Green for All campaign promotes training of inner city workers for green collar environmental jobs. One program, based in that same low-income town wedged in around giant petroleum refinery tanks where I saw Jesse Jackson speak 17 years ago, is called Solar Richmond. Solar Richmond just graduated its first class of underprivileged youth trained to be solar electric installers.

Van Jones wants to connect "the people who most need saving with the jobs that most need doing." But when he testified about green jobs before Congress recently, he was told that because it can cost up to $10,000 to get an inner city youth "job ready," his ideas were not cost effective. Van Jones wants us to think about how much it costs to deal with the social disruption of unemployment that leads to violence, drugs and prison. Green jobs are the future, he says, and we can't afford to leave anyone behind. We can no longer accept "throwaway" species like the polar bear, "throwaway" people like poor blacks, Latinos and Native Americans, or "throwaway" communities like Richmond, California.

Speaker Majora Carter grew up in the South Bronx, another "throwaway" community. She described the difficulties of growing up in a community abandoned to garbage dumps, prisons and asphalt. But she did not abandon her community. She started Sustainable South Bronx, and has raised $30,000,000 to build the South Bronx Greenway and other green projects in her neighborhood. "My folks are from down South," she said; "they always used to talk about the crick - that means the creek - and how nice it was. That connection to nature is our birthright, but we have less access to green spaces than any other part of the city."

Carter is fighting plans for another prison in her neighborhood. She wonders why government can't invest in green jobs instead: "Why are we still building monuments to our failure when we could be building monuments to hope and possibility?"

While these two speakers were highlights, Bioneers had much more to offer. The Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers was present, along with many other indigenous speakers. And there were women. Alice Walker, Eve Ensler and Joanna Macy were high on my list of admired women. This was one of the few conferences I have attended where I did not leave thinking that women didn't get equal time at the podium. To the contrary, there was a strong acknowledgement everywhere that a revival of the feminine principle in politics and life is essential for building a new culture that can live with the earth without destroying it.

Bioneers makes connections between culture and environment. It also encourages a new approach to technology, using a concept called "biomimicry." Biomimicry is technical innovation inspired by nature's designs. One example is new tough materials that are created with a low-temperature process inspired by abalone shell. Another is identifying new medicines by observing what plants a sick chimp or monkey chooses to eat from the forest. Still another example of biomimicry is designing gardens that mimic natural ecosystems for improved productivity in a small space.

Inventor Jay Harman presented a family of designs for fans and impellers based on the natural spirals found in seashells and blossoms. My favorite was a mixer for giant municipal water tanks. When water is stored for long periods, it can stagnate and become unhealthy. Harman's mixer is tiny, barely bigger than my fist. Turning in the middle of the tank, nothing much happens at first, but over time it sets up a natural vortex in the tank that keeps the water circulating and fresh. Harman said even if you stop the mixer, the vortex will keep on spinning for days.

While ideas and inspiration abounded at Bioneers, the gathering could have used more attention to grassroots activism. I was disappointed that there was no visible information about the energy bill that Democrats are getting ready to bring to a vote. Both House and Senate versions have money designated for green job-training programs that could begin to move the Green for All vision to reality. Right now is a critical moment for this bill as Republicans are maneuvering hard to hold up a conference committee and block the bill. There should have been letter-writing tables scattered throughout the venue.

Another disconcerting fact about Bioneers is the cost of attending. While there were many scholarships for youth and some for activists, the $300 to $400 cost for registration and meals is too much for most working class people. Fortunately, you can hear many former Bioneers speakers at the network of Green Festivals that are staged in several major cities. A three-day pass to the San Francisco Green Festival on November 9-11 is only $25.

Still, it was a treat to hear all of the dedicated and inspirational eco-pioneers who shared the podium at Bioneers 2007. The final plenary was most outstanding. Burmese activist Ka Hsaw Wa, founder of EarthRights International, told the story of his tribal people tortured and abused by the military in the service of a US oil company, Unocal, which was building a gas pipeline through their territory. EarthRights International became the first group to successfully sue a US corporation for human rights abuses committed abroad. Today they are asking for public pressure on Chevron, Unocal's parent company, to use its influence with the Burmese junta to stop the violence in that country.

Ka Hsaw Wa called for a new view of globalization where "there is no 'mine' in this house." He said: "We know the companies and their military partners have lots of money, guns, power and influence. But they do not have what we have. We have truth, we have justice, we have courage, and most importantly, we have each other to protect this house where there is no 'mine.' We will win."

As I left this final, emotionally stirring session of the Bioneers conference, I found myself in a line for the women's room where a young woman grabbed my arm and said, "Can you believe all the love that is here?" She had tears in her eyes and a smile on her face. Her name was TBird Luv (she has a website, search it out) and she is an artist. "It's the oneness that I feel here, Mother Earth telling us we are all one."

I asked TBird Luv why she came to Bioneers and she told me that she had spent years working on her art and her spirituality but it was now time to "come out and do something for the earth." As a child of many races - African, European and Native American - she told me that she could feel the oneness integrating in her own body.

As the planetary environmental crisis grows more threatening and impacts more people, the environmental movement will continue to evolve. The idea that we are all one people on a small planet has, like Jay Harman's water tank mixer, been stirring the heart of humanity for some time. This, more than any particular technical innovation, is what will solve our ecological crisis.

If we feel a quickening now of this idea of oneness, it is no surprise. Perhaps, before we know it, individuals, families, companies, states and nations will align in a galaxy of highly functional networks and spin us into a green future.

09/13/2006

Jason Bradford is a PhD evolutionary biologist who studied the effects of climate change on cloud forests in the Andes under the auspices of the Missouri Botanical Garden and other institutions. But in 2004 he switched his focus from study to action by initiating a remarkable community organizing effort in his new home town of Willits, California, called Willits Economic LocaLization (WELL).

In a world where the global political, economic, and environmental trends are so negative and frightening, efforts like WELL really stand out. Jason is no slouch at spreading the word about WELL - he hosts a radio show called The Reality Report, is a correspondent for Global Public Media, and periodically contributes to his local newspaper - so I asked him to answer a few questions about the project for Truthout readers.

Kelpie Wilson: Jason, in a nutshell, what is the mission of WELL?

Jason Bradford: The official WELL mission is to foster the creation of a local, sustainable economy in the Willits area by partnering with other organizations to watch for opportunities and vulnerabilities, incubate and coordinate projects, and facilitate dialogue, action and education within our community.

The greatest challenge we, as a species, face right now is to create a way of life based on the energy flow of sunlight, not fossil or nuclear energy, to do so without destroying our soils, and to enroll others in this transition. We are under no illusion that Willits can tackle this alone, but hope that Willits can be an inspiration to others. If we can do it here, it is possible elsewhere.

KW: How did you make the decision to switch from a career in climate change and biodiversity research to this hands-on engagement with sustainable living?

Jason Bradford: I became really frustrated and disillusioned as a researcher. I would sit in my office and read the flood of data about the climate system, habitat loss and extinction, soil and fresh water depletion, and the impending peak of global oil production. Then I would listen to the radio or look at the newspaper and these issues were basically ignored, meaning my work was being ignored. Why would people train and fund scientists to do this work and then not pay any attention to them?

The institutions I was associated with didn't appear to want to examine the root causes of these problems either. The fact that our financial system is designed to liquidate our life support system, rewarding current returns over any hope for our descendants is hard to factor into the day-to-day decisions a university makes, especially when more and more funding is coming from corporations and endowments tied to the growth of investments. People didn't want to hear what I had to say, and I felt that.

My wife is a physician, and so I could afford to drop out and make a switch. We strategically moved to a place that was relatively small. We felt that social capital would be easier to build here, and the area had a history of thinking about renewable energy and sustainable agriculture. It was a bet that paid off.

KW: In his Labor Day speech, President Bush addressed our "oil addiction" and said that the problem is that "dependence on foreign oil jeopardizes our capacity to grow." In your view, is the energy crisis mostly about our dependence on foreign oil from "people who don't like us," as the president said? Or is there a deeper problem?

Jason Bradford: It is extremely important right now to give people heartfelt honesty. The lies of Bush and Cheney make them bigger threats than those swarthy people they like to scare us with. Cheney said the American way of life is non-negotiable. In a bizarre sense that is true. The laws of physics and ecology won't negotiate and can't be unilaterally ignored. And those laws are telling us we need to change how we inhabit this planet very quickly or we may not be around that much longer.

I have an idea. Let's stop blaming others for our problems. The deeper issue is our addiction to growth. Oil has permitted astounding economic growth, and we have become dependent, both structurally and psychologically, upon not just the oil but the growth process itself. Instead of questioning our assumptions, we are going to war for oil and we are looking for substitutes that are very dirty, like coal, tar sands, and nuclear. And while I am in complete favor of developing renewable energy systems as quickly as possible, I don't believe it is either possible or wise to grow our economy using renewable energy.

The problems with growth are easy to understand, but the implications are hard to face. For example, I have two children, twin boys who are seven years old. For now and over the next dozen years or so I'll be happy if they grow. During certain phases of development growth is perfectly good. But our economy is now beyond any reasonable limits, and we are making ourselves sick with more growth - as a society we have obesity and cancer, and the vital organs are starting to fail. Suburban sprawl, highway expansion, military build-up, air pollution, climate change, and mass extinction of species - these all stem from our drive to grow the economy.

Ironically, there exists a counter movement to slow down in life. Enjoy quality rather than quantity. Many are finding that the pleasures of a beautiful home, neighborhood and community are rewarding enough. Spend time building relationships where you are instead of traveling afar and spending money on things. Less is more. Now that is truly economical.

KW: Obviously the Bush administration is not going to tackle the twin problems of peak fossil fuels and climate change in an effective manner. But with the new climate change legislation in California, it looks like action to address energy and climate change at the state level is possible. Why should people spend their time on economic relocalization as you are doing in Willits rather than work for change at the state level, for instance?

Jason Bradford: I wouldn't say it is an either or proposition. If you have a zone of control or influence at the state level, then by all means work there. But for most people, they can only reasonably feel connected at the local level. I can attend city council meetings, but I am not going to drive to Sacramento for a session of the legislature.

However, what happens at the local level has a big influence on what happens at the state, and vice versa. State representatives will more likely listen to the consensus of the local elected officials than to what an individual citizen might tell them. And cautious local officials will be more open to change if the state is behind it too.

There are just over 2000 homes in Willits. A well-organized group of people can go out in a day and knock on every door. The post office does it! Making personal, face-to-face connections is much more powerful than any other form of communication. It will trump phone calls, emails, newspapers and TV news.

And guess what. As soon as the media and the politicians realize they have an informed and passionate constituency, they will begin copying those messages. It will become a positive feedback with the potential for rapid social change.

KW: From what I have read about WELL, I am amazed at the boldness and scope of what you are doing. Can you give us short descriptions of the half dozen or so most important accomplishments of the group so far?

Jason Bradford: First, I want to make it clear that WELL always works in partnership. None of these accomplishments are ours alone, but involve dialogue and cooperation with others. In fact, it is difficult to know what is WELL versus some other group. We have overlapping roles and are all in this together. This is about all of Willits.

For example, the WELL Energy Group did an inventory of how much energy is consumed in the Willits area. A local city councilman took notice and asked what the city could do. He created an official ad hoc energy group that eventually recommended that the city install photovoltaic panels to run the city water systems, both treatment and sewage. The city council agreed to this, and soon the city will be requesting proposals from contractors to build this.

An amazing group sprang out of the WELL Food Group called the Grateful Gleaners. They go get fruit and vegetables that would otherwise rot, share with the land owner, each other, local food banks, and after-school snack programs. The Gleaners are harvesting literally tons of fruit and giving it away.

For the past 18 months, WELL has organized and co-sponsored dozens of public forums that have raised awareness among the population. At these events and following them, people talk about what really matters and have a social network in which to organize action. The successful ingredients for social change are: providing compelling, relevant information, a place to build relationships, and an organizational structure for continuity and administration of tasks.

Ideally, what WELL wants is for our mission to be taken up by individuals and other institutions. This is starting to happen. On the individual level, many people are evaluating their own habits and consumption patterns.

More collectively, neighborhood gardens are going in. One house may have a big yard, so groups of families are sharing the space and chores. The business community is being enrolled through the Chamber of Commerce, which joined the Business Alliance for Local, Living Economies (BALLE) and is developing a Local First campaign to highlight the benefits of local production, retail and ownership. The Community Development Director for the city has used portions of his budget to co-sponsor events with WELL, and is open to re-evaluating city plans, codes and practices. The school district has allocated an acre of land at an elementary school for an organic community farm. The local county social services center has set aside half an acre for a community garden. The city is sponsoring the Home Energy Link Program of the Renewable Energy Development Institute to do energy audits and then energy efficiency makeovers in Willits homes. The Bank of Willits has approved the Economic Localization Fund in which local savings dollars are used to finance energy conservation projects. WELL participants are becoming mentors of high school students for clubs and independent study projects. Our newsletter is now a column in the local paper.

I think we have done a great job raising community spirits. So many positive changes are occurring, and each time one of these projects gets going it makes it more likely someone will become motivated to follow their own passion and become a leader of something else.

KW: The community spirit is key, it seems to me. Tell us a little about how the group recruits new members and sustains that spirit.

Jason Bradford: Initially, we set up regular screenings of "The End of Suburbia" and introduced people to WELL. Hundreds of folks around town came to those over several months. The numbers coming to the film dwindled and we were left with many core activists. We spent some time formalizing how we operate, define membership, and elect a council. Soon, we will be doing a significant outreach to the community.

This outreach is important because many people are very supportive but can't regularly attend our meetings or events. They want to be on our mailing list, give us donations, and sort out their support role. Maybe they own a business and give us free services, for example. Or they are going to shift their business practices to be more sustainable. We want to support and promote any family, organization, or business that is willing to make changes towards a sustainable, local economy.

The various subgroups of WELL have split off into projects based on the interests of involved community leaders. Some have felt a dispersion of energy because of this, and so we encourage project groups to report back to the broader WELL group periodically to review the status of their work. By working closely with the WELL office, these community projects get promotion through our web site and newsletter, and announcements at our public events. We also are trying to fundraise for community projects, such as a paid coordinator for a community garden or farm, or equipment for the gleaning club.

Doing anything together has its joys and perils. We can't avoid personality conflicts and miscommunication. I have been amazed, however, at how well people negotiate interpersonal dynamics and come to relationships with compassion and the ability to forgive. For the most part, WELL participants are mature, caring people who have a passion for social change and a sense of urgency. That passion and urgency can be a blessing and a curse, but overall it is the fuel that has kept us going.

KW: What advice do you have for people who would like to start similar groups in their own communities?

Jason Bradford: Leadership is needed from all sorts of people. Have courage and resolve. I ask that those of you worried about the future and upset by the direction of our country, get up and do something about it right where you live. Go beyond angry protests. Begin creating something tangible that realizes your dreams and draws out the aspirations of others.

The first rule is to know your own strengths and weaknesses. Maybe you are a great organizer or strategic thinker, but a terrible public speaker. Next, find some people to work with you to get started and sort out what roles you are good at. The initial goal is to create a team with internal cohesion.

Start planning a strategy. What makes sense in your community, and specifically among your social network? Is disaster preparedness a lead-in topic? Has climate change attracted attention recently? How about high energy prices or the unpopularity of the war? Is the local economy stagnant and/or weighted towards a single, vulnerable industry? Can you connect the dots from any of these topics to the need to relocalize the economy, building a more secure and vibrant home? What projects can you begin that bridge the gap between the current reality and your desired future?

Then build bridges to other groups within the community. Since we are dealing with issues that cut across different kinds of formal and informal social organizations, be flexible enough to go down any paths that show the least resistance. Maybe you will find success with a church group, a school, local government or the business community.

Most importantly of all, get started! You will have troubles and failures. Things will come up that you didn't expect and aren't prepared for. Go easy on yourself; don't get caught up in hindsight. Be honest and persistent and you will earn respect and a following. Cultivate others to follow their own passions. Each of us has the opportunity to rise to some occasion.

04/21/2005

Maybe it's just the springtime, but I'm here to tell you that this Earth Day the Green Dream is alive. How can you not feel that way after you've just spent the day setting thrifty little lettuce and broccoli starts out in a well-manured field?

We've got to keep reminding ourselves of the Green Dream because, let's face it: these are hard times for green-leaning folks as we see so many of our worst Cassandra-like predictions coming true. Even those of us who have shouted about global warming for years are surprised to see how quickly the climate is changing right now. The just-released Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, which brought together nearly 1,400 experts from 95 countries, told us that we have degraded nearly 60% of the planet's capacity to support life with clean air, water and food. Then there is Peak Oil. Like most environmentalists, I knew it was coming - it's basic physics - yeah, we're going to run out of oil. But I believed those bastards when they said it wouldn't happen for another 20 years. Let the grandkids worry about it.

The entire energy industry needs to be prosecuted for concealing the true state of their oil and gas reserves. The SEC has already fined Shell Oil $120 million for inflating their oil holdings in order to keep their stock price high. This is just the beginning of the unveiling of an accounting rip-off that will make Enron and WorldCom look like peanuts, if it ever gets going. Someone also needs to take the US Energy Information Administration to court for broadcasting falsely that the world-wide peak of oil production would not hit us until sometime between 2020 and 2030. Right now we don't know if the real peak is happening today or if it will happen two or three years from now, but it's clearly breathing down our necks. How on God's green earth has such incompetence been tolerated?

Well, here we are. The House Republicans want us to give another 10 billion or so in tax breaks to the fossil fuel industry to somehow motivate them to get off their duffs and find more oil. What if they gave that $10 billion back to us as rebates so we could all invest in a little personal energy independence?

Wouldn't it be great to have $10,000 to put some solar panels on your roof? Ten billion dollars could put those solar panels on 100,000 roofs. If we'd been doing that for the last ten years, we'd have a million solar roofs by now.

It's a time to plant, to invest, to give back to the Earth.

With gas prices up, President Bush now wants to talk to us about energy conservation and energy independence. Will he do it? Will he actually tell us to put on a sweater when we're cold instead of turning up the thermostat? What about car mileage standards? What will he do about the big lots full of SUVs and monster trucks that Detroit all of a sudden can't sell? How did we get here? How can we find our way back to some sanity?

The fertilizer the Green Dream needs is exactly what it is getting right now: the simple truth of our situation. The American Dream as articulated since the 1950s - the suburban, two cars in every garage, ultra-convenient, mall world dream - is history.

Once there was another version of the American Dream. Thomas Jefferson's yeoman farmers would live free and independent, producing according to their own needs and living a simple, virtuous life that would make them model citizens. This kind of self-sufficient farmer is an endangered species today. But perhaps it is a dream worth reviving. Once we find something to do with all the SUVs, we will be tearing up the suburban asphalt and planting gardens.

Do you remember the rabbit lady in Michael Moore's film "Roger and Me?" Go get that film if you haven't seen it. The rabbit lady, struggling to survive in the trashed economy of Flint, Michigan, raised and sold rabbits, her sign on the road advertising Rabbits - Pets or Meat. To me the rabbit lady is a beautiful example of American resourcefulness. We all have that kind of strength and pride, if only we would be called upon to use it.

So many of us are yearning to pitch in now, to do something, to plant a seed. Here are the usual "what you can do to save the planet" Earth Day suggestions, but instead of thinking of them as chores to add to an already endless list, think of them as investments in a better future.

1. Get your body in shape. We'll all be walking and biking a lot more in the future, so we might as well start now. And it's so good for you. Getting in shape does not mean getting skinny. Fat is good for you too. Just keep it moving.

2. Eat good food. Try to eat whole, unprocessed food like rice and vegetables, organically grown and locally grown if possible. Food processing and transport use a lot of energy. At the same time, over-processed food zaps your personal energy.

3. Buy some power strips. Check every single appliance you have plugged into a wall outlet and see if it draws current even when the switch is turned off. If it is warm to the touch it's drawing current. Lots of devices suck these "vampire loads" so we won't have to wait for them to warm up when we turn them on. Plug them into the power strip and turn them all the way off. Turn them back on when you need them - and wait.

4. Buy a bunch of super-efficient light bulbs (either compact fluorescents or the new high efficiency LED lights) and replace every incandescent bulb in your house with one.

5. Plant a garden. Even if it's just a window box with some lettuces or a tomato plant in a pot on the deck. Join with friends and plant a community garden and make it fun! Raise rabbits.

6. Invest in solar electricity, solar heating and energy efficient appliances. The payback time in power bill savings may be a little long right now, but when energy prices shoot through the roof, you'll be glad you did.

Below I've added a few Internet links for further exploration. Happy Earth Day! ________________________________________Fat is not so bad. http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/042005HC.shtml

Good fat is good (the new food pyramid). http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050420/sfw099.html?.v=6

How to kill vampire loads and a host of energy conservation tips. http://www.energyconservationinfo.org/almanac.htm

05/01/2002

I've been an environmental activist for fifteen years, and I constantly struggle with feeling overwhelmed. The need for activism seems endless. How can the average person who wants to help begin to cope with all there is to do? Because each of us has limited time, we want to know what the priorities are. So when people ask me, "what can I do?" they are really asking, "what's the most important thing to do?"

What follows is a brief guide on how to organize your personal activism. Think of it like a Chinese menu. You can take one from column A and two from column B, but for a balanced meal, you need at least one from each group described below. You’ll find that the four groups work together synergistically to help you be a more effective activist and build a more balanced life.

The Activism Food Groups:

1. Reduce your personal greed index.

Greed is the number one problem in American culture. I have a book about a New Guinea village called: "Always Hungry, Never Greedy." These people live a subsistence life of farming and fishing based on sharing. Every holiday ritual, song, story and dance emphasizes sharing. To be seen as greedy is the most shameful thing in the culture. Although everyone has enough and no one starves, it's OK to be a little hungry.

01/01/2002

A lot of ink will need to be spilled before America figures out the true import of September 11. Better ink than blood: to me that is the American Way. In that tradition of free speech, here’s a green perspective on the conflict between traditional cultures like Islam and modern consumer society and what it means for our survival.

This conflict now threatens to become the New World Order: the conflict that will replace the Cold War as an excuse to continue military buildup. From a green perspective, conflict and military buildup are a lousy approach to priming the economic pump. But then so is consumerism. Neither living to kill nor living to eat are the proper way for a supposedly evolved species like us to live. We need a higher purpose. One is easily provided in the environmental crisis. We need to become responsible stewards of the planet. It's our mission, and if we don't choose to accept it, then it will be because deep down we are an immature and dissipated species on a suicidal path.

Fundamentalism inhibits us from doing our job as humanity by not allowing us to grow up. It mires us in an ancient world where father knows best, and if you don't agree you may pay with your life. The fathers will do almost anything to keep their authority, and the weak are happy to let them. Patriarchs come in all stripes. We have many versions still surviving in this country: from fundamentalist Christians and Jews to bikers and organized crime families. One of the good things about consumer corporate capitalism is that it lifts us out of extreme patriarchy. Glass ceiling not withstanding, women in modern developed nations have more freedom and power than at any time in recorded history.

Women's freedom is essential if we are to grow into our ordained role as earth stewards. Women are essential because we control the means of reproduction. Being Earth Stewards is all about balance, and the most important balance we need to work on is the balance between production (of goods from earth's resources) and reproduction (of ourselves). In case you haven't noticed, overpopulation and overconsumption are choking the life out of this planet.